Posts From Dave Roberts

Back to homepage
Dave Roberts

Dave Roberts

State may face $29-43 billion budget deficit in 2020

In Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State Address last week, he noted that California’s budget has repeatedly failed to prepare for recession, resulting in “painful and unplanned-for cuts” to schools, child care, courts, social services and other programs. He

Read More

Glazer hopes to lead centrist movement

Correction: Due to a reporter error, an earlier version of this article mistakenly reported that Assemblywoman Catharine Baker supports the extension of Prop. 30 taxes. Baker does not, in fact, support the proposed extensions.  Steve Glazer – bald, bespectacled and

Read More

Officials: Get used to paying more for less water

Californians may need to get used to paying more for water, despite and because of their successful efforts at conservation, according to state water officials at a recent Assembly committee hearing. Californians exceeded the state’s 25 percent water conservation mandate

Read More

Chuck Reed: Reform measure will bite pension liability ‘elephant’

Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed acknowledged at a recent taxpayer forum that his latest proposed pension reform initiatives won’t solve California’s $350 billion unfunded retirement benefit liability problem. But he thinks they’ll help. “Sometimes you have to eat the

Read More

Finance Department urges CalPERS to reduce risk

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is considering reducing its investment risk with a plan that would be so ineffectual it could lead to a “rate shock” when the pension bills come due, according to the California Department of Finance.

Read More

Brown warns climate fight will cost trillions, disrupt lifestyle

Gov. Jerry Brown warned at a recent climate change workshop that trillions of dollars, the transformation of our way of life and a worldwide mobilization on the scale of war will be required to stave off climate change’s “existential threat”

Read More

Commission investigates Denti-Cal problems

Half of California’s children are reliant for their oral hygiene on Denti-Cal, a state-run dental care system that has failed miserably. A state audit report in December 2014 chronicled the California Department of Health Care Services’ years of dental neglect

Read More

Government transparency effort faces union backlash

Senate Bill 331, a bill sponsored by government employee unions that is on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, is touted as increasing transparency in contracting by certain local governments. But critics say the bill’s provisions are actually intended to punish agencies

Read More

Contested family leave bill on governor’s desk

Since 1997 the California Chamber of Commerce has prevented more than three-quarters of bills that it calls “job killers” from reaching the governor’s desk. This year only three of 19 targeted bills were passed by the Legislature. Gov. Jerry Brown

Read More

San Francisco voters to weigh temporary ban on new construction in Mission District

A housing moratorium on San Francisco’s November ballot is aimed at keeping rents and housing prices affordable in the city’s Mission District, where prices have nearly doubled in five years. But opponents say it will have the opposite effect. Proposition

Read More